I love credit cards so much! v7.0 - 2025 (see first page for add'l details)

[Judique]

Hes had the plat before so can't get the new card bonus! This account was a plat many moons ago lol

In that case stall for a bit and wait for a higher offer. I had an Amex Bonboy card and it had been downgraded from the Brilliant. They kept trying to get me to upgrade. It wasn't like I was going to close the card and I couldn't apply because I still held too many Bonvoy cards. Eventually they gave me the Brilliant upgrade with if I remember correctly, 85k points. That was enough for me as other than actually buying or earning, I can't get a nice stash going.

 

[Duckbug.Ducktales]

Oh no, Air France devaluation:
Air France KLM Flying Blue award prices increases by 15-25% to/from Europe

 

[StephPlum]

P2 just had an offer two weeks ago to upgrade his green to a gold for 30k MR. He took it and has already met that spend. Amex just offered him 50j MR to upgrade his new gold to a plat... any disadvantage there? Will he lose the 30k MR?

I'd wait unless you desperately need the points or the Plat? Not sure if this is personal or business but I had an offer to upgrade gold biz to Plat biz for 120K (with 10K spend). 50K seems low

 

[Crazed4DisneyinSC]

Does anyone know if most of the QS food at Disney codes as Restaurants? Wanting to use my Discover for 5% if so, but can't remember...

 

[StephPlum]

Oh no, Air France devaluation:
Air France KLM Flying Blue award prices increases by 15-25% to/from Europe

I just saw this. Booked last year for April 2025 and it was only 50K for midwest to Rome biz class.

 

[Duckbug.Ducktales]

I just saw this. Booked last year for April 2025 and it was only 50K for midwest to Rome biz class.

Yeah, we've used the 50K biz class many times to go to Europe: France, Germany, Italy, and Portugal. Just came back from Portugal Sunday, guess that was out last 50K biz class. There will hopefully still be plenty of transfer bonuses that can mitigate the price hike.

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

We haven't decided if we'll be flying or train-ing it from Florence into Switzerland. Any thoughts??? We've got 3 nights in Murren booked, but will have a night before those, so probably Lucerne if we fly to Zurich, or somewhere along the train route if we're going via train.

I am by no means an expert, but Florence-->Murren by train looks a bit daunting (several changes). It might make more sense to train from Florence-->Milan, spend a night there (the cathedral is gorgeous and if you book tickets the day they are released you can see the Last Supper, which I highly recommend -- actually Milan is worth visiting just to see this masterpiece). Then from Milan-->Murren it looks like the journey would be a bit easier (still a few transfers, but manageable).

There are a few SLH options in Milan that I'd try; I do not recommend the Straf unless you can sleep through loud bar music / noise until the wee hours of the morning.

Milan is very easy to navigate either on foot on public transit.

 

[platamama]

This account was a plat many moons ago lol

How many moons? In the past, people have reported Amex forgets after 5-7 years. I've churned the Biz Marriott, got it in 2018 and again in 2023.

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

If anyone is thinking of churning the AC Chase card (a lot of the bloggers write glowingly about how amazing AP points are), a word of caution. People in Canada were churning AC hard -- like getting several bonuses per year on various cards (I met 1 such person when I was staying at the Al Maha who told me he accumulated something like 400k points in just 1 year). I've never been a hard churner, but I did dabble a bit with AC bonuses. However 2 years AC changed the wording in their T&Cs making it easy for them to clamp down on bank bonuses, then last year a lot of churners started getting warning letters (I was not 1 of them because I was very moderate with AC since I wasn't willing to risk my account -- dh accumulates a lot of points organically which I use for travel). Then last year they started taking points out of AP accounts, in many cases leaving people with negative balances. I did have 10k points taken out of my account, not sure why, never called and asked.

The AC rules state that each AP account is allowed 1 type of card per lifetime (their levels are: entry, core, premium, core small business, premium small business). I've never had an AC biz card and not sure if there will be any in my future since it can be much harder to get approved for biz cards in Canada (several banks require hard proof of the biz). So if anyone has had the Chase AC card once I would not recommend applying again -- it would really hurt to meet the MSR and get the points only to have them clawed back.

 

[FreeDiningFanatic]

I used a Conrad BOG Cert on 1 night at Conrad Orlando. I got the points as if it had been a cash booking. I did have to pay resort fees, which stung a lot less when I got the points as if I'd booked a $1k/nt room (cash prices were obscene lol). I was sweating it out a bit though because if I had missed the reservation I would have been on the hook for the cash price of the room

I am sweating that I'm going to forget the paper cert here! The cash price of this room is over $2k- yikes. I did purposely arrange for this to be our third night, so hopefully if anything goes awry, we would be sure to get there by night 3. It's not for the faint of heart.

 

[FreeDiningFanatic]

We are headed to Seafire in February (first time!). I've budgeted a nice amount for F&B, but honestly we aren't foodies and I feel like splurging at the finer restaurants that are already more expensive (due to location) might just be dumb. Does the Hotel Indigo have some more casual dining that we could mix in with Coccoloba. We really just want to get to a warmer place, read some books, swim a bit and just relax. We weren't planning on renting a car, so is there a store that's walkable/bike able to pick up some snacks/drinks for the room?

These are great questions. Here's some tips on ways you can potentially save some money.

• Remember when you are looking at prices, it's in KYD. KYD is fixed to the dollar at 1:1.25. So add 25% to everything. Service charge is also added at 18%. So roughly add 43% to everything.
• Coccoloba is great and they have certain foodie nights, like Taco y Tequila on Tuesdays- I think the drinks are a bit discounted that night.
• There's a grab n go shop in the resort. Works if you want to grab a salad or sandwich for the room for later and then you avoid service charge (I think).
• Ave at the Seafire is up there in price and we don't go there for dinner anymore. It's also where breakfast/brunch is served. I do think brunch is very good, but it's a buffet that's worth the one time splurge, if you're there on a Sunday.
• Get as much value as you can out of the resort fee.
  • Morning coffee and tea in the lobby, just near the elevators.
  • Complimentary non-motorized water sports. The rafts are really great and we love kayaking. They'll provide all the snorkeling gear.
  • Evening social hour. I believe from 5-6pm, in the lobby. Complimentary wines and appetizers.
  • Leave your sunscreen at home. Sunscreen is provided all over at the beach and pool, as is aloe. It's actually unlabeled Sun Bum brand.
  • I absolutely love, love their Atelier Bloem bath products. I've have ordered them and they are expensive! For your $80/day resort fee, I'm not opposed to dispensing some into travel sized bottles I bring from home.
• Hotel Indigo is worth a visit. We really liked their rooftop bar and thought the food was very good. Ask your concierge to make you reservations to get the best seats around sunset. Drinks were really good there too. They have a couple of restaurants on site- it's worth looking at their menus.
• There's a new beach club (not part of Kimpton or Hotel Indigo) just to the left of the Seafire that has food and drinks, either at tables or tables in the sand or the bar. We didn't find the drinks to be any good, so we didn't order food. But worth looking at reviews to see if it's for you- Bonny Moon Beach Club. It's cute.
• I agree, a car is an unnecessary expense. Just grab a taxi there and back.
• Yes, there is a walkable supermarket, just follow the beach path to the left of the Seafire when looking at the ocean. You can also get complimentary bikes from the Seafire. The restaurant/supermarket development (The Grove?) is about .4 miles from the public beach/Bonny Moon beach club. There's a small grocery store, a bakery, Mykonos restaurant, Jonny Pastrami's sandwich shop, Island Naturals (breakfast/lunch?). I haven't eaten at any of these places as we just stumbled upon it this last visit in November. The small grocery store is called Shopright- the Grove. The walk would be a bit sketch for small kids as you have to cross on West Bay Road, but when we went in that direction in November, it seemed they were doing construction and perhaps a sidewalk is to come? It's fine for adults, but just know you're walking alongside a busy-ish road once you get off the beach path. I would do this early in your trip.
• You can request a microwave in advance from your concierge.
• If it makes sense to you, you can also order some groceries and have them delivered to the hotel. Fosters is who we have used and the produce quality was very good. Shopright is fine for drinks and snacks- but very limited on fresh products.
• Free-ish excursion: There's a free trolley that takes you to the Cayman Turtle Center (that gets VERY mixed reviews; I haven't been but my sister enjoyed). Ask a concierge for trolley hours. But, once you get off the trolley, you can walk over to Macabuca, a beachfront tiki bar/restaurant set over lava rock. If you're into snorkeling, there's a dedicated snorkeling area that you go down a ladder just next to Macabuca to access, so be sure to bring your snorkel gear from the Kimpton.

Have so much fun. Hope you enjoy the sun and the resort.

 

[becauseimnew]

Not an expert - but have getting these in between Chase Cards. (AMEX mostly hates us too).
Me - March Triple Cash, April Biz Alt Connect and October Triple Cash again
DH - July Triple Cash, August Biz Alt Connect and November Trip Cash again.

All with high credit limits.

I'm going to apply for the Triple Cash, do you recall what credit bureau they pull?

 

[wanderlust7]

I'm going to apply for the Triple Cash, do you recall what credit bureau they pull?

US Bank mostly pulls TU, but it can vary based on what state you're in and you individually. If you've gotten a US Bank card before, what they pulled before would be the best predictor.

 

[VGCgroupie]

Does anyone know if most of the QS food at Disney codes as Restaurants? Wanting to use my Discover for 5% if so, but can't remember...

Yes. I used my Chase Disney card since I wasnt sure and then once I got my statement I seen all my food purchases coded as restaurants. Edit to add this was at DLR not WDW.

 

[eticketplease]

Yes. I used my Chase Disney card since I wasnt sure and then once I got my statement I seen all my food purchases coded as restaurants.

I never know either so I charge back to the room as if I don't have enough DGC to pay it off it will code as Travel and I can put it on my CSR for 3x or VentureX at 2x but can wipe it out.

 

[VGCgroupie]

I never know either so I charge back to the room as if I don't have enough DGC to pay it off it will code as Travel and I can put it on my CSR for 3x or VentureX at 2x but can wipe it out.

Can you charge back to the room at DLR?

 

[eticketplease]

Can you charge back to the room at DLR?

Yes you can

 

[VGCgroupie]

Yes you can

Somehow I didn't know that, maybe because I always equated using the magic band to charge back to the room and that didnt work at DLR.

 

[eticketplease]

Somehow I didn't know that, maybe because I always equated using the magic band to charge back to the room and that didnt work at DLR.

I think I saw somewhere you can even use the app now although I’ve never done that

 

[Crazed4DisneyinSC]

Yes. I used my Chase Disney card since I wasnt sure and then once I got my statement I seen all my food purchases coded as restaurants. Edit to add this was at DLR not WDW.

Thanks. Hopefully it's the same as WDW then. We're staying offsite, so we can't charge back to the room.